Caught on camera.

That’s the aim of the Ipswich Borough Council (IBC) Emergency Services Centre (ESC) – to provide a CCTV service that helps to provide a safe environment, tackle crime and provide reassurance to people in the town.

CCTV does deter crime, though its main benefit is in providing evidence to courts to ensure that criminals are brought to book.

How good is image quality? We often see grainy images on TV news programmes. I was filmed at about 148 metres from one of the Princes Street cameras and the result is printed as part of this article. Pretty good at that distance, though if I was wearing a hoodie and a baseball cap, it would be difficult to identify me.

The ESC monitors 176 cameras in public spaces, and 270 cameras at IBC sites around the town, including Parks, Car Parks, Sports Centres, Public Buildings and Sheltered Housing Schemes.

For the annual reporting period April 2022 to March 2023, 3,648 incidents were witnessed and logged. The three most common incidents were Looking for People, Anti-Social Behaviour and activities connected with the Night Time Economy.

During the same period, we released 369 pieces of downloaded footage to the Police to assist in investigations.

As an example of how CCTV has assisted in an arrest, we have recently received a “thank you” from the Police thanking one of our operators for her assistance.

‘Amy was incredibly helpful, and without the help of the CCTV operator we would not have been able to detain three individuals involved in a robbery’.

Amy managed to track the individuals after the initial report of a mobile phone robbery and then spotted one of the individuals attempting to discard the stolen mobile phone moments before Police arrived on scene, leading to their arrest.

We have three locations with talking cameras, which during the reporting period were used 104 times. On 70% of these occasions, individuals acknowledged the message and left the area.

IBC owns a small number of temporary CCTV cameras for hot spot areas outside the town centre.

These can remain in place for up to one year so that the police and council can monitor specific areas, to help tackle crime and anti-social behaviour.

A recent Ipswich Star article highlighted a particular hot spot on the west side of the town centre. 

The area - made-up of Brooks Hall Road, Blenheim Road, and the All Saints Church end of Waterloo Road – is now awaiting Suffolk County Council permission for the camera to be installed on one of the streetlights.

A new four-way CCTV camera would help monitor the area for a period of one year to deter crime and anti-social behaviour.

Labour has set out five national missions that we will build our manifesto around and, if elected, drive everything we do in government.

Labour will be focused on the outcomes that matter to you: making sure you are better off, live in safe communities, and have the opportunities you need to succeed – wherever you live, and whatever your background.

An important Labour mission in government will be to halve serious violent crime and raise confidence in the police and criminal justice system to its highest levels, within a decade.

Feeling safe as we go about our daily lives in Ipswich is vital.

I'm pleased that the Council has positioned enhanced CCTV cameras, talking cameras and emergency call points around Ipswich and works closely with police to bring criminals to justice. IBC and Suffolk Police are working hard to make people feel safe in Ipswich.